1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to reed valve assemblies, and more particularly to motorcycle reed valve assemblies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Breather valves for motorcycle engines have been used for many years. The purpose of a breather valve is generally twofold. First, it expels air and oil from the crank region, on the down stroke of the pistons, to the gear case where the oil lubricates various gears and other parts. Second, it draws oil from the bottom of the oil separating pocket (also sometimes referred to as the “settling pocket”) in the bottom of the gear case. Exemplary breather valves are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,496; U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,449 and U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20040123823, which are all incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
An exemplary known breather valve 10 is shown in FIGS. 1-4. The illustrated breather valve 10 is commonly known as a “flapper” breather valve, because it includes a flexible member 21 which is commonly referred to as a flapper by those of skill in the relevant art. As illustrated, breather valve 10 includes a body 19 with a plurality of bores 22 formed therein. The bores 22 in body 19 are sealed via flexible member 21, which is coupled to a top surface of the body 19 via fastener 23. In operation, the flexible member 21 flexes to selectively cut off or open air and/or oil flow to/from bores 22.
Many known valve assemblies, such as rotary breather gears (not shown), are typically designed for engines operating at specific revolution per minute (RPM) ranges. Such a configuration, however, is disadvantageous for engines typically operating at lower RPM ranges, at higher RPM ranges, or wide RPM ranges—i.e., ranges different from the optimized ranges of known valve assemblies. Further, many known valve assemblies suffer from relatively high engine noise during operation. This can be a significant problem with gear driven rotary breather valves primarily due to gear meshing from the gear driven arrangement.
Additionally, known rotary breather valve assemblies often require shims for proper mounting within an engine. Shims add cost and complexity to the installation process, and thus are undesirable.
Further, known valve assemblies do not sufficiently protect against engine damage during engine failure, which adds to the cost and complexity of repairing damaged engines. In known valve assemblies, when an engine has a failure, debris can pass through the breather passage and become trapped between the breather gear and the bore. Trapped debris can tear up the bore, which then requires machining and an oversized replacement part to repair the damage from the trapped debris. Thus, a need exists for an improved breather valve assembly.
Other problems with the prior art not described above can also be overcome using the teachings of the present invention, as would be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading this disclosure.